Implants such as, for example, bone plates, must often be contoured to a fit a patient's specific anatomy to properly fix a fracture. The bone plates may be bent by a surgeon or other user using bending pins slid over drill guides that are pre-assembled with the bone fixation element receiving holes of the bone plate. Forces applied to the bending pins are transferred to the drill guides attached to the bone plate until the bone plate is bent, as desired. This process, however, exerts bending forces directly to the threading formed in bone fixation element receiving holes and, in some cases, may damage the bone plate beyond usability.